Balloon bellies

You were born with a balloon in your belly. This balloon is your greatest source of power. The power to generate power itself relies upon the integrity of your balloon.

The coordination of your movements of digestion, circulation, and breath are influenced by its integrity.

The balloon can be seen most clearly when barely concealed beneath a toddler’s skin and paper thin layer of abdominal muscle. Shamelessly flaunting her new balloon, it is no coincidence that the small human also demonstrates nearly perfect motor patterns, like the squat and hinge.

The balloon allows for the two most contributing factors to power generation in the body:

1) stability of the spine, ribcage, and pelvis and

2) transfer of forces from the upper to lower body and lower to upper body through the core.

Your balloon was created by the intrabdominal pressure you were born with as it pressed out from within you. As a baby, when you started to extend your head and neck followed by your low back, the back of your body got shorter and the pressure ballooned anteriorly.

As you gained more neural networks, coordination, and muscle mass, you started to contain the forward projecting balloon belly with layers of abdominals that shortened and strengthened. As the abs compressed the balloon inward from all directions, the balloon applied an equal and opposite force to your internal abdominal wall. The relationship of the outwardly expanding abdominal space and the inwardly constricting abdominal wall sent the pressure downward toward your pelvic floor, and was capped, contained, and maintained by the thoracic diaphragm.

When you breath in, your diaphragm drops and increases the pressure within your balloon. Like submerging a balloon under water with one hand, you must have balanced and distributed pressure or the balloon will slip out to the side and rise to the surface. The equivalent of this in the body is an energy leak, a decrease in power, and potentially an injury.

Imagine grabbing a balloon with two hands and squeezing in from all directions. If you squeeze evenly you can contain it and increase the pressure significantly. If that pressure finds a weak spot in your grip and quickly balloons out between your fingers, that is the equivalent of a hernia. Ain’t nobody got time for that…

To minimize injury and maximize power,

1) achieve proper alignment of the spine, pelvis and ribcage

2) minimize weak spots in the pelvic floor

3) strengthen the pattern of diaphragmatic breathing

4) learn to move under load while sustaining #1-3

When balanced in its containment, the balloon in your belly acts as a potent amplifier of energy distribution.

It empowers you.

Initiate childlike enthusiasm for balloons in 3..2..1..